Guest conductor Mario Alejandro Torres will lead the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra’s lyrical winter program, beginning with a performance of César Franck’s hybrid symphony-symphonic poem “Symphony in D minor,” his most enduring work, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18 at Bainbridge Performing Arts.
The opening movement seems to ask a question with its three-note motive, and the final movement aims to answer it with both ebullience and sincerity.
The night’s program includes two other selections as well.
Composer Bright Sheng was lifted to national prominence by Leonard Bernstein and has received commissions from orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra and Detroit Symphony. His orchestral setting, “Black Swan,” of Brahms’s “Intermezzo in A major, Op. 118, No. 2” is moving and beautifully haunting.
Eric Ewazen’s “Concerto for Bass Trombone and Orchestra” features guest bass trombonist David Krosschell and is playful in the first movement while the second is a sort of “song without words.”
The finale will impress listeners with its power and drive as it soars to a riveting conclusion.
Torres, a native of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, is a conductor, teacher, performer and promoter of artistic community growth based in Seattle. Torres is bringing a new and exciting sound to the Poulsbo Community Orchestra, where he has been recently appointed music and artistic director.
In February 2017, he did a conducting fellowship with the Seattle Symphony, assisting Maestro Ludovic Morlot in an exciting concert where Hilary Hahn performed the impassioned Bruch’s first violin concerto. At University of Washington, his energy and passion to work with young musicians have set UW Campus Philharmonia Orchestras to higher artistic performances.
Torres has appeared internationally as a guest conductor and clinician for music programs of social inclusion for troubled teenagers such as: The National Music School of Suriname in South America, and the Académie Musicale Occide Jeanty in Croix des Bouquets in Haiti.
He also gave performances with the Eddy Snijders Orchestra in Paramaribo, Suriname, and in his hometown with the professional Chamber Orchestra of San Pedro Sula and the student choir of the School of Music Victoriano Lopez.
Tickets, $21 for adults, and $18 for seniors, students, military, and teachers, may be purchased online at www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org, by phone at 206-842-8569 or in person at BPA.
Each youth attendee receives free admission when accompanied by a paying adult, thanks to the BSO’s “Youth in Music Initiative,” funded by Wicklund Dental.
